Mohammed Affan Pasha

This Project was Terminated by IFA and the Project Coordinator is ineligible to apply to IFA in the future.

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA under Arts Projects (Research/Practice) will explore and engage with Dakhni expressions in Bangalore’s popular culture through the practices of rap and hip-hop. Mohammed Affan Pasha is the Coordinator for this project.

Mohammed Affan Pasha is a rapper, poet and lyricist based in Bangalore. He started rapping at the age of 16, and has, till date, released 17 rap songs in Dakhni, Urdu, Hindi and English. He is the co-founder of Wanandaf, a hip hop community based in Bangalore alongside Sumukh Mysore aka Smokey the Ghost and other fellow rappers. Given his experience, he is best placed to be the Coordinator of this Foundation Project of IFA.

Dakhni has long been a part of popular art and culture. It has made appearances in mainstream Bollywood cinema through songs and iconic characters. However, the representation of Dakhni culture and language has always been caricatured and deployed only for comedic effect. For non-Dakhni speakers this has often meant the liberty to ridicule the language as something that sounds funny. Certain present day content creators and influencers too use Dakhni only to further this stereotype. Many native Dakhni speakers shy away from speaking their mother tongue in public or switch to Hindi or the more ‘legitimate’ Urdu when speaking because of this stereotype. This project endeavours to engage with and challenge this deeply internalised shame that burdens Dakhni speakers.

This project titled Apnich Bol, Dakhnich Bol takes inspiration from a couplet penned by Hashmi Bijapuri after the conquest of Bijapur by Aurangzeb and the subsequent fall of the Adil Shahi dynasty in the 17th century. Even while Bijapuri felt that he would be compelled to write and perform in the language of the conqueror if he wanted to retain his station, he resisted that impulse with one powerful couplet: Tuje chakri kya tu apnich bol, Tera sher Dakhni hai, Dakhnich bol (Why bother about patrons, in your own words do state; Your poetry is Dakhni, and only in it should you narrate). The emphasis on sher Dakhni hai as opposed to sher Dakhni me hai (poetry is in Dakhni) highlights how he believed that the language is not merely a medium for poetry, but rather the poetry itself.

As a child, Pasha proudly spoke his mother tongue – Dakhni - even though it was made fun of and patronisingly referred to as ‘broken Urdu’. Ignorant that the dialect he spoke had a name, history and a unique culture, Pasha grew up calling it ‘Banglori Urdu’. However, chancing upon Bijapuri’s couplet made him see that Dakhni has always been under threat of being erased, misnamed or compelled to submit and become a dialect and subset of a larger language and cultural group. He recognised how the legacy of Dakhni poets and artists has been wrought with constant struggle for keeping Dakhni-ness alive. This project is an attempt to contribute to that continuing effort through the practice of rap and hip-hop.

The project will lead to the creation of a nine-track, studio-recorded rap album. Each song in the album is titled based on common moods that have become catchphrases in the city’s everyday slang. Of these nine tracks, Eid ka Chand and Kumbhakarna have already been released as singles across streaming platforms. The lyrics for the seven other songs have also been prepared. As part of this project, these songs will be composed and recorded to become part of the album.

In addition to the music tracks, three of the songs will be accompanied by music videos shot with the quotidian Bangalore as the backdrop. Further, there will be six to ten curated local performances that will take hip-hop to the Dakhni neighbourhoods within and on the periphery of the city. These performances will be held at spaces such as tea shops and community centres across localities in the city such as Neelasandra, Shivajinagar, DJ Halli, Tilaknagar, Malleshwaram, Koramangala, Indiranagar, Islampur and so on. In the second half of 2022, based on engagements, interactions and experiences of performing the album across localities in the city, Pasha will record and release a bonus track that will draw heavily from the people, their stories, and their relationship to Bangalore. With the help of collaborators - visual artist and filmmaker Vyshnav Vinod and urban practitioner and researcher Ojas Shetty - Pasha will also explore the possibility of a behind-the-scenes documentary film capturing critical moments from the album’s recording, release, making of the music videos and the live performances across the city.

The diverse outcomes from this project will include the nine-track music album, three music videos, six to ten curated performances and a bonus track, with the possibility of a behind-the-scenes film. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be the complete album along with the bonus track, the music videos and photographs from the local performances.

This project suitably addresses the framework of IFA’s Project 560 programme in the manner in which it attempts to celebrate and bring to the fore Bangalore’s deeply rooted Dakhni culture which has largely been obscured by the city’s mainstream discourse.

IFA will ensure that the implementation of this project happens in a timely manner and funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm and document it through an Implementation Memorandum. After the project is finished and all deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with Trustees.

This project is supported by Sony Pictures Entertainment Fund.